A blog about my thoughts on photography, sailing, and life in general.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Bald Eagle Hunting

After the trip I took with my Dad to see the launch of STS-130 Space Shuttle Endeavour, I still had some time left on my lens rental. I had heard and seen photos of a bald eagle’s nest in Baytown, Texas so I decided to go hunting, photo hunting that is. For this particular safari I’m using a Canon 300D with a 500mm F/4L and a 1.4 tele-converter. Here’s me and the gear.

I got a little turned around in Baytown so it took me about an hour to find the nest on the first day.

Here's a little fellow that I found near the nest.

I stayed for about an hour and a half until it started raining and sleeting. Facing a drive through downtown Houston in the evening traffic, I decided not to wait any longer thinking that I would just come back the next day or on the following weekend. Well the weather didn’t cooperate the next day either and Friday and Saturday I spent time with my nieces. That left me with Sunday. Sunday morning I got up early hoping to catch them both at the nest first thing in the morning. Evidently I was not early enough. When I got back to the nest, a lady that was already there told me the male eagle had flown off ten minutes prior. Darn! I waited as long as I could but again no luck.

That evening, while take a scenic drive with my parents, Dad suggested that we go by the nest one more time. I had all the gear with us so I said “Why not?” My timing was off that day because just as we got there the Momma eagle started moving around the nest. Even though I wasn’t ready, I fired off a few shots. My position was off and I was shooting though brush and trees.

If you look closely you can see a wing and the top of her head at the center of the nest. Near sundown I got this next one. The lighting would have made this a perfect shot if one or both of the eagles would have shown up.

The sun has gone down further and the lighting is getting poor. I have taken of the tele-converter to get another F-stop because of the low light. I’m ready to go. It’s getting too dark to shoot. I take other round and pack everything up thinking that Sunday evening was another strike-out. I didn’t look at the photos for that evening until the next day. To my surprise in the last set of photo I took, I found an a photo of Momma taking a look around. It’s not the best of photos but I didn’t go home empty handed either.
Here's a cropped version.